Title

Author

Date

5-2012

Advisor

Mario Ferruzzi

Department

Foods and Nutrition

Abstract

While the impact of food composition and processing on carotenoid bioavailability has been the subject of several investigations, the effect of meal patterning remains unknown. The aim of this pilot study was to assess the impact of select consumption patterns on the bioavailability of carotenoids from vegetables. On three randomized testing days, subjects consumed equal amounts of fat-free “chef’s salad” ingredients at two meals representing lunch and dinner, along with raw salad vegetables and 8g canola oil split between meals in the following patterns: 100 and 0%; 75 and 25%; and 50 and 50%. Blood was collected from 0-12h and triacylglycerol rich lipoprotein fractions (TRL) were isolated by ultracentrifugation. TRL carotenoid concentrations were analyzed by HPLC-PDA. Considering all carotenoids, absorption was greatest when ≥75% of vegetables were consumed in the first meal (P